The Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics kick off Friday with an opening ceremony in Verona’s ancient Roman arena that will be boycotted by a growing number of countries. They are protesting that the event will mark Russia’s official return to the global sporting arena since being banned from Olympic events following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Paralympics Committee (IPC) in Sept. 2025 decided to allocate 10 slots to athletes from Russia and Belarus, which supports the invasion, allowing them to use their national anthems and flags, despite Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine. The ceremony will mark Russia’s first official participation in the Paralympics since it hosted the games in Sochi in 2014.
France is the latest nation to join the Winter Paralympics opening ceremony boycott, following Ukraine, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Canada and Britain have said they will not attend the ceremony due to scheduling conflicts since their athletes are competing in Alpine skiing the following day, more than 150 miles from Verona. Germany’s Paralympic Committee has said its team will feature in a prerecorded segment of the event but will not participate in the Parade of Nations.
More delegations could miss the event due to travel disruptions caused by the U.S. Israeli attacks on Iran. Iran and Israel have each qualified a single athlete to compete in the 2026 Paralympic Games.
The international multisport event for athletes with disabilities will be held over the next 12 days in Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Tesero and Verona. Just like the preceding Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, these are the first Winter Paralympics being hosted across multiple cities with 665 athletes representing more than 50 nations in six sports throughout northern Italy. The sports are: wheelchair curling, sled hockey, snowboard, biathlon, and Alpine and cross-country skiing.
Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT has announced it will not air the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics opening ceremony in protest while Polish public broadcaster TVP has said it will not show images of Russian and Belarusian athletes participating in the Parade of Nations.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics, in which a record number of women competed, reportedly scored the event’s best-ever broadcasting numbers.
The European Broadcasting Union has said the 29 EBU Member broadcasters and licensees are set to deliver its biggest-ever free-to-air coverage plan for the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, spanning 27 European territories.
Alongside national coverage, Eurovision Sport, the EBU’s free-to-air streaming platform, will provide live and on-demand coverage across Europe, including streams of all 6 Paralympic winter sports.
Warner Bros. Discovery will carry daily highlights across Europe on its linear sports channels, which the EBU says will happen for the first time. In the U.K. coverage will be available on public broadcaster Channel 4 for free, across Channel 4 and Channel 4 Streaming.
Peacock is the streaming home of the Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics in the U.S., providing comprehensive Winter Paralympic coverage by streaming every sport and event, including all 79 medal events across the six sports.
Source: variety.com
